December / Christmas 2015

The Christmas spirit was alive and well in our house this year.  As I said in a previous post, we started the season with a fun night at Wildlights at the zoo.   After that, I tried to so something a little Christmas-y every day.  We put up our tree and a few decorations.  We watched Christmas movies and classic Christmas TV shows, and read Christmas books.  We made snowflakes and hung them in Evie’s room and put Christmas clings on all of the windows.  We sang Christmas carols in car, in the bathtub and at bedtime.  We made a gingerbread house.  We wrapped shopped, wrapped Christmas gifts and went to lots of Christmas parties. 

We made an Advent Chain and I wrote down things on each link that Evie could do each day to prepare for Christmas.  Sometimes it was something fun like “Have got cocoa tonight”.  But most of the time, it was stuff like “Be kind to your brother”, “Say a prayer for a friend” or “Give your dog a snuggle”.  We tried to focus less on the material aspects of the season and more on the spiritual things.  It helped a lot that Evie’s preschool was also teaching her about the Nativity.  They even had a birthday party of Jesus.  We read the Nativity story at home and talked about why we are really celebrating Christmas.

We spent a weekend in KY and while we were there we visited the Krohn Conservatory with Kiki, Pops, Aunt Holly and Avi.  I was disappointed because I really wanted the kids to see the live Nativity there, but it didn’t open until the following weekend.  Regardless, we really had a great time.  In addition to the regular plants, the Conservatory has some beautiful Christmas poinsettias and amazing train displays.  Mitchell is really into trains right now so it was pretty awesome to watch him completely light up when we walked into the Conservatory.  His eyes were huge and he didn’t know where to look there were so many trains.  He just kept saying “Choo-Choo!  Choo-Choo!”.  Evie enjoyed exploring and wandering down the different paths and she even got to make a Christmas ornament.  After the Conservatory, we headed over to Findley Market.  There were Christmas carolers singing outside and a temporary Christmas tree lot set up in the front.  It’s been years since I’ve had a real tree and it was nice to breathe in that Christmas smell.  Pops treated the kids to a Belgian waffle treat and colored candy popcorn and they were in heaven!  After a quick lunch at Eli’s BBQ, we headed back to my parents’ house.  We ended the night with a surprise Christmas light excursion once the kids were in their PJ’s.  There was an amazing display a few streets over from my parents.  They had a place where you could donate canned goods as well so we did that and remind the kids and each other of our blessings.  Evie thought that was pretty cool.

We went to Village Lights in German Village with Grandma Rita.  Mitch was a bit of a fuss-bucket, but we still had a good time.  You can’t beat the ambiance of German Village.  They had some neat light displays and Evie even got to sit on Santa’s lap!
We made snowman Christmas cookies one night.  The break-n-bake kind because I thought they’d be easier.  But generally, nothing is easier with my kids.  :)  Evie took 9,000 years to actually put the cookies on the sheet, then Mitch wanted to help, Evie freaked out because he messed up her line of cookies and then I caught her trying to lick one.  I told her that she couldn’t do that and she stuck her tongue out at me.  I told her that if Punky the Elf saw that, he would report her to Santa and she may end up on the Naughty List.  She got upset and said (this is a direct quote) “Everyone else is nice.  But you ruined my Christmas”.  OMG.  What is she going to be like as a teenager if she like this now?!  While the cookies baked, we decided to write help Evie write her Christmas list.  Step 1 – Evie looks through the Toys R Us catalog and circles what she wants.  After about 10 minutes of circling every item on every page, I reminded her that Santa was only going to bring her a few toys.  At this point, the timer for the cookies dinged and, with that, it was like a switch was flipped in the kids. They went nuts.  Jumping, dancing, laughing, screaming.  Mitch started spinning around in circles.  Then he climbed on Pat’s back and threw up.  UGH.   What a way to end the night.  Needless to say we didn’t finish this list that night.  Evie was so excited when I suggested that she bring a few cookies to share with her friends at Titi’s house the next day.

We made the trip to see Santa at the Worthington Mall.  Evie was acting shy, but did talk to Santa a little. Mitch waltzed right up, gave Santa a high five and then said “I pooped”.  I was mortified.  Santa just chuckled.  No picture was taken.  Geez!  For the record, his diaper was clean and dry.  We attempted to get a Christmas picture, but the results were less that desirable.  I’m thinking of changing Mitch’s name to “The Blur” because that’s about all he is my pictures these days.  The child never stops moving!

We did our best to make this Christmas season a special one for our kids.

Christmas Parties

This year we went not one, not two, but SIX family Christmas parties.  Whew!  It was a whirlwind and we were exhausted by the time all was said and done, but boy did we have fun!  I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was too busy enjoying myself.  I want to be a part of the memories, not just take a picture of them.  Add that to the fact that my munchkins were spun-up, sugar-crazed maniacs that literally never stop moving, and well, I guess you can see why pictures were few and far between.  Nevertheless, I did manage to capture some of the fun that we had.   It was so nice to catch up with family that we hadn’t seen as much as we would have liked this year and Evelyn and Mitchell had a ball playing with all of their cousins.  I wish we could focus more on this togetherness than gift giving all the time.  It is so hard not to fall into the materialistic aspects of Christmas, but we really do try.  We want to teach our kids that presents are not the most important things.  Family and love are. 

Wildlights

We went to Wildlights this year at the Columbus Zoo in late November.  We ended up going on a Tuesday night and it was perfect.  Cool, but not too cold, and not crowded at all.  The kids were mesmerized by the lights and decorations. Christmas music played throughout the zoo and we enjoyed $2 hot cocoa and kettle corn.  One of highlights was getting to see Santa’s reindeer!  I loved watching the kid’s faces as they took everything in – it was magical!

Miss Fancy Pants

Evelyn loves to play dress up these days.  Her favorite books right now are the Fancy Nancy series.   She wants to be fancy whenever we go out now.  Jewelry is a must – beaded necklaces, bangle bracelets and multiple rings.  She usually has a pair of sunglasses and yesterday she packed a boa in her purse.  I didn’t realize she even had it until I noticed pink feathers all over the backseat.  Shoes are another big thing with Evie.  She owns more pairs than I do and she changes them multiple times a day.  Recently Aunt Sha-Sha gave her a pair of black booties.  She absolutely loves them and insisted on wearing them to school because they were ‘so fancy’ and she wanted to show her friends.  It’s not unusual to find her dressed up in a princess dress with not one, but two frilly skirts underneath in addition to her light-up Cinderella heels. 

As fun as it can be to play dress-up, sometimes getting her dressed to go out can end up being quite an ordeal.  Evie is a strong-minded child and so stubborn.  She has started wanting to dress herself a little bit more which has led to some interesting results.  For example, the other day she wanted to wear a bright pink dress with a purple skirt underneath, navy blue leggings and black boots.  One morning, I dressed her up in a grey and yellow polka dot shirt and jeans.  I thought she looked adorable, but she started sobbing because the sleeves of the shirt were too tight (they really weren’t).  Another day Pat got her dressed and she threw a fit because the sleeves of her shirt were too long.  There are days when she cries because her socks aren’t long enough (she’s tried to pull anklets up to her knees) or her pants don’t completely cover her ankles (they were capris).  We pick our battles and we don’t mind her having an opinion about her clothes, but it can be frustrating sometimes.  

Despite this, I do love having a fancy-pants little girl.  Getting Mitch dressed for the day is usually a lot easier and faster, but Evie really enjoys her clothes and extravagant accessories and that’s fun to see.  Heaven help us when she’s a teenager though!

Jibber Jabber

Mitch is a pretty physical kid.  He learned to roll over and sit up fairly early.  He was crawling well by 7 months and he took his first steps at 9.5 months.  These days he’s a running, rolling, climbing and jumping machine.  His language, by comparison, has been a little slower to develop.  For a long time he just said Mama and Dada and sometimes ‘Bye.  He was mostly just gesturing and making random sounds. He’s still doing this, but recently Mitch seems to have had a little language burst and has been saying few new words and repeating things after us. 

He can say Mine, Apple, Uh-Oh, Up, Mama, Dada, Bubba (Bubble), Cup, Choo-Choo, Shoe, Love you (Pat swears he said this, but I haven’t heard it yet), Dis (This), Dat (That), Bye, Hi, Stop, Yes, No, Uh-Uh (while shaking his head no) and pop (for lollipop).  He can say our sitter’s name (Titi) and he will make a dog sound (a sort of woof-woof / howl combination) and say ‘moo’ when he sees a cow.  We’ve been trying to get him to say ‘Evie’.  He managed something that sounded a little bit like it, but he doesn’t really call her anything yet.  He just follows her around and drives her crazy.

He may not be talking a ton, but we know that his comprehension skills are spot on.  He understands everything we say to him.  The other night I said to Pat “I think I’m going take the kids upstairs and give them a bath”.  I got distracted for a half a second and turned around to find Mitchell was no longer in the room.  I found him on his way upstairs to the bathroom to get in the bath!  I can ask him to go get his shoes or to put one of his toys away and him will.  I read to him before bed every night and I’ve starting adding books that are a little bit longer.  I don’t necessarily read all the words, but I do talk about the pictures and try to get him to identify things.  He LOVES trains right now so we’ve been reading The Little Red Caboose and The Little Engine that Could.  We love it when we can hear the real train while we are reading.  Mitch always stops to listen and say “choo choo”.  There is a show called Choo Choo Soul and he is obsessed with the theme song.  Whenever I play music for the kids, he starts jumping around and waving his arms yelling ‘Choo Choo!  Choo Choo!’.

I love that he’s starting to talk more.  He gets so frustrated when he wants something and we don’t understand.  Hopefully this frustration will lessen when he can tell us what he needs.  It’s hard to tell right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a lot shyer that his sister ever was.  He’s not a performer.  When we FaceTime with family, he won’t say too much other than “Bye”.  If we try to get him to talk, he usually hides his face.  Regardless, I’m sure that we will be hearing more and more out of our Mitch!

Leaves

Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.
Emily Bronte

Happy Halloween!

Halloween this year was an EVENT.  It was really the first time Evelyn cared at all about the holiday and we really had fun with it.  When it came time to decide on a costume, we just couldn't decide.  At first she wanted to be a princess, but I have to admit, I steered her away from that.  Ultimately she decided she wanted to be a cowgirl and that was that.  She wore the costume a total of 4 times - Boo at the Zoo, the Latonia Halloween Block Party, Trick or Treat (Columbus had theirs on Oct. 28th) and a birthday party on Halloween.  She got to dress up for school too, but she chose to be Doc McStuffins for that (we already had the costume).  Evie loved being a cowgirl.  She loved all of the accessories and she loved the makeup.  All I did was add some brown freckles with an eyeliner pencil and my girl was in heaven!  We trick or treated with some of neighborhood kids for about half a block and then Evie announced that she had enough candy and she wanted to go home. She was more than thrilled to be able to give out candy to the other kids and I can't say I minded.  As for Mitch... well our little monkey just wanted to do whatever big sister did. He was so cute in his costume and he charmed the pants off of everyone.  Then he had two lollipops and then threw a mega-fit when we wouldn't give him the entire bowl of Halloween candy.  Our kiddos sure do keep us on our toes and we love it!